Drums are widely used containers for holding, storing and transporting various types of materials. Materials contained within drums may include, for example, liquids, chemicals, solids, pellets and a wide variety of other types of materials. Due to the size and weight of drums and the need to safely and efficiently manipulate drums various types of drum handling equipment have been designed. Existing drum handling equipment includes forklift attachments, handmovable lifting trucks, and overhead crane and hoist operated attachments. Drum handling equipment has also been designed to handle single drums or multiple drums, for example, forklift, crane and hoist operated attachments are particularly useful for handling multiple drums.
Drum lifting equipment typically includes a drum lift clamp or mechanism which holds the drum for lifting and transporting of the drum. Existing drum lifting equipment has not included an indicator that the drum is clamped by the drum lifting equipment. Such an indication that the drum is clamped by the drum lifting equipment would be useful for an operator of the device. For example, an operator of a forklift attachment for lifting drums would be informed that the forklift attachment is clamped onto the drum and the forks can then be lifted and the drum transported. Generally, operators who operate drum lifting equipment, such as forklift operators, are unable to see whether the drum lift clamp is properly clamped onto a drum. Accordingly, an advantage would be to provide drum lift equipment operators with a signal indicating whether the drums are properly clamped and ready for lifting and transporting. Providing the drum lift equipment operator with signals indicating whether drums are properly clamped in the drum lift equipment would also improve the safety of lifting and transporting drums.
Existing drum handling equipment has also not provided inventory control and management features. Cost effective management and control of inventory is an objective of many businesses. A variety of information regarding handling of drums may be desirable, for example, counting the number of drums lifted, measuring the weight of drums lifted, and tracking elapsed time of operation of the drum lifting equipment. In addition to inventory management and control of drums and drum contents, information about handling drums may be useful for other purposes, such as maintenance purposes. Drum lifting equipment may be periodically serviced, and tracking the time the drum lifting equipment is in service can assist in proper maintenance of the equipment.
Previously, such information was manually accumulated or in some cases not even acquired at all. For example, the number of drums lifted and transported has been manually counted and drums have been weighed by taking the extra steps of placing the drums on a scale. Accordingly, it would advantageous to automatically track various information pertaining to drum lifting and transporting.
Therefore, there would be advantages to having new drum lifting equipment, particularly drum lifting indicators and inventor control devices. One specific advantage would be to have a drum lift indicator which indicates to the equipment operator that the drum is properly clamped in the lifting equipment. Another advantage would be to have a drum lift inventory control device which counts the number of drums lifted. Another advantage would be to have drum lift equipment which measures the weight of the drums when the drums are lifted. Yet another advantage would be to have drum lift equipment which assists in maintaining the equipment by providing information on use of the equipment. Other advantages of having new drum lift equipment will become apparent in view of the present invention.